I was at a gorgeous cliff side, coastline yesterday and even though I havent had the film developed yet, I know they all came out like snapshots.
I just feel like I didnt even get one eyecatching picture.
Ever get the feeling you wasted a great opportunity?

A lot of times it's about overcoming distractions, which can come in so many forms. Sometimes it's simply too hot or too cold, and I find that physical discomfort while shooting is tough to beat. If I can pull one good negative when I know I was uncomfortable, then it's a major victory over that distraction.

Sometimes the setting is there, but I can't quite find what I'm looking for. That just calls for more practice. And patience.

And then sometimes, I'll revisit stuff six months later that I thought was plonk at that time....and realize I was being wayyy too hard on myself.

Maybe you're being too hard on yourself, too - you haven't even seen your negatives yet. You might be happily surprised!

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I get the lost opportunity feeling almost every day!!

It doesn't get much easier either, as when you get better, you get more critical!! But, you'll get to the stage where everyone is looking at your pictures and saying "wow!" - that's when it starts making a bit more sense.

I've never been any cop at landscapes by the way - even with a few years' experience, mine always look like tourist photos!!! Maybe you're trying to force yourself on a subject which you're not so keen on?

what you have to understand is we are new photographers.its gonna take some time before we start to capture ART,you dont think that all those musicians just started to throw out hits as soon as they bought there first instraments or all those artists painted mona lisas as soon as they got there first paint brush,of course they didnt.the only way to learn is to fail(there my words) dont use them!!!:hail: oh yes...bow down!!!

I think photographers come in 2 varieties - ones that came naturally with 'the eye' and others that need to learn it.

My girlfriend, for example, has an artistic background. She's got 'the eye'. Even with her P&S she takes some amazing photos. I, on the other hand, have a more analytical background - from IT. I'm working on 'the eye', and it's progressing nicely, but I still struggle. I know what every setting does on my dSLR, and usually how to use it - but I lack 'the eye' so while my shots may be technically perfect, it's perfection of crap hehe.

See the image in your mind first, then work backwards to a solution which allows it to be photographed. Knowing all of the cam's features will be a huge edge with this approach.

I see so many people look through the VF and then try to decide which of the myriad exposure/composition/filtration/angle solutions to choose from.

If you want to travel to Chicago and arrive at noon you select noon in Chicago as the end and work backwrds to where you are now and the point in time you need to leave. It's efficient. If you consider leaving and all the times you could leave and directions you could follow and speeds you could travel then the odds of finding an effeicient route to arrive on time would be nearly impossible.

My girlfriend, for example, has an artistic background. She's got 'the eye'. Even with her P&S she takes some amazing photos. I, on the other hand, have a more analytical background - from IT. I'm working on 'the eye', and it's progressing nicely, but I still struggle. I know what every setting does on my dSLR, and usually how to use it...

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Yes I think we all get the "wtf???" feeling a lot especially when you go through a lot of effort and don't have much to show from it. The best thing you can do though is ALWAYS look for opportunities to improve. Go back to those meh-ish photos and figure out what makes them look like snapshots. You just have to consciously aware of EVERYTHING. I know I tend to not be very detailed and I can't tell you how many times I took a shoot to later see a stick going through a corner or the horizon isn't level. You just have to be aware of your mistakes and then learn to avoid them.

As someone else stated... if it was easy it wouldn't be an art. If you look around, even at this forum, a lot of the REALLY strong photographers either have years of experience or training.

LWW has a good bit of advice too with picturing the image in your mind and then figuring out how to make the camera generate that image. You might want to find something that's easily available to photograph and just keep practicing different techniques on that one scene (different angles, settings, etc.) and see what works and what doesn't.